Decolonize This Place

Along with many others, W.A.G.E. was a core collaborator of Decolonize This Place  from 2016-2019. We actively participated in three initiatives during that time.

In summer 2016, the collective MTL+ invited W.A.G.E. to be a core collaborator in Decolonize This Place  at Artists Space, a temporary action-oriented space working around indigenous struggle, black liberation, Free Palestine, global wage workers and de-gentrification.

W.A.G.E. and MTL+ co-organized a roundtable with speakers Mabel Wilson, David Joselit, Amin Husain, Eva Mayhabal Davis, Nia Nottage, Sneha Ganguly, and Lise Soskolne (for W.A.G.E.), moderated by Andrew Ross. Wages of Whiteness in the Art Economy  took place on December 10, 2016. Read W.A.G.E.'s contribution here .

In the fall of 2018, shortly after the launch of WAGENCY, W.A.G.E. contributed an electronic direct action to the 3rd Anti-Columbus Day Tour, an annual effort led by DTP to decolonize the American Museum of Natural History. W.A.G.E. drafted and sent a Fee Request for $383 million through WAGENCY to Ellen V. Futter, President of the AMNH as well as to other museum staff on October 8, 2018. This symbolic action was intended to call attention to the AMNH's prioritizing of capital investment over the urgent need to decolonize its holdings.

Also sent to: Administrative Assistant   Administrative Assistant   Administrative Secretary, Department of Ornithology, Division of Vertebrate Zoology AMCC Collections Manager, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics       Assistant Curator of Biological Anthropology, Division of Anthropology, Assistant Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School  Assistant Curator, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Division of Physical Sciences, Assistant Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School Assistant Curator, Department of Ornithology, Division of Vertebrate Zoology, Principal Investigator, Sackler Institute for Comparative Biology, Assistant Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School            Assistant Curator, Invertebrate Paleontology, Division of Paleontology, Assistant Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School     Assistant Director of Genomic Operations, Institute for Comparative Genomics     Assistant to the Director Associate Curator, Cnidaria, Crustacea, Other Invertebrate Phyla, Principal Investigator, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Associate Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School   Associate Curator, Department of Herpetology, Division of Vertebrate Zoology, Principal Investigator, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Associate Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School     Associate Curator, Department of Ornithology, Division of Vertebrate Zoology, Principal Investigator, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Associate Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School     Associate Curator, Protist Collection, Principal Investigator, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Associate Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School         Business Manager, Sackler Institutes for Comparative Genomics                      Chief Registrar and Director of Conservation            Curator of Asian Ethnology and Division Chair, Division of Anthropology Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School Curator of Mexican & Central American Archaeology, Division of Anthropology, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School    Curator of North American Archaeology, Division of Anthropology, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School Curator of North American Ethnology, Division of Anthropology Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School Curator of North American Ethnology, Division of Anthropology, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School     Curator-in-Charge, Department of Herpetology, Division of Vertebrate Zoology, Principal Investigator, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Associate Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School     Curator-in-Charge, Department of Ichthyology, Division of Vertebrate Zoology, Principal Investigator, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School         Curator-in-Charge, Fossil Invertebrates, Division of Paleontology, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School    Curator-in-Charge, Fossil Mammals, Division of Paleontology, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School         Curator, Amber, Diptera, Isoptera, Lepidoptera, Holometabolous Minor Order Collections, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School Curator, Annelida, Mollusca Collections, Principal Investigator, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School Curator, Arachnida, Myriapoda Collections, Principal Investigator, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School         Curator, Computational Science, Molecular Systematics, Principal Investigator, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School          Curator, Department of Astrophysics, Division of Physical Sciences, Computational Sciences, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School        Curator, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Division of Physical Sciences, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School           Curator, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Division of Physical Sciences, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School           Curator, Department of Mammalogy, Division of Vertebrate Zoology, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School           Curator, Department of Mammalogy, Division of Vertebrate Zoology, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School           Curator, Molecular Systematics, Principal Investigator, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School Curator, Molecular Systematics, Principal Investigator, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School            Curator, Professor and Leon Hess Director of Comparative Biology Research, Director, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School        Curator, Professor and Leon Hess Director of Comparative Biology Research, Director, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School        Curatorial Assistant, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics                     Curatorial Assistant, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics                     Dean of Science for Collections, Exhibitions, and the Public Understanding of Science, Curator, Department of Ichthyology, Division of Vertebrate Zoology, Principal Investigator, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School          Department Administrator Department Administrator Department Administrator Department Administrator Department Administrator Department of Astrophysics, Division of Physical Sciences, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School   Director of Collections, Archives and Preparation     Director, Center for Biodiversity & Conservation      Director, Conservation Genomics, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Affiliated Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School  Division Chair and Lamont Curator, Department of Ornithology, Division of Vertebrate Zoology, Principal Investigator, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School           Executive Assistant           Financial Administrator Frick Curator of Fossil Mammals, Division of Paleontology, Principal Investigator, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Dean & Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School   Harold Boeschenstein Director                                   Herbert R. and Evelyn Axelrod Research Curator, Department of Ichthyology, Division of Vertebrate Zoology, Principal Investigator, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School    Lab Manager, Vertebrate Zoology, Ornithology Laboratory Manager, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics                    Office Manager                 President Senior Bioinformaticist, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics               Senior Office Manager      Senior Vice President and Provost for Science, Curator, Division of Paleontology, Provost & Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School           Senior Vice President for Communications, Marketing Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement, Strategic Planning, and Education It was also sent to the architect, landscape designer, and exhibition designer contracted by the AMNH to execute the Gilder Center expansion.

In late 2018, W.A.G.E. got involved in another campaign led by DTP, this time challenging the Whitney Museum of American Art to remove its board Vice Chairman, Warren Kanders, the owner of Safariland, a private defense manufacturer of tear gas cannisters and smoke grenades that had most recently been used against asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border.

DTP’s call stemmed from an internal letter written by a group of the museum’s full-time employees and part-time contracted workers, sent to Whitney Director Adam D. Weinberg, that was made public  without staff consent. The letter decried the museum’s silence on Warren Kanders as complicity and pointed to an abdication of responsibility that would effect, in the form of increased labor and decreased political agency, those already impacted most directly by state violence, oppression and exploitation: the museum’s visitor-facing staff who are primarily Black and people of color. As the letter stated: "Should protests from the public or questions from visitors arise, our visitor-facing staff will be the ones answering them. Leadership choosing not to give a public (or even internal) statement displaces the labor to our visitor-facing staff, who are, generally speaking, our most diverse and lowest paid staff. You will recall similar complaints surrounding the Dana Schutz protests — and we are disappointed that the response by the leadership of this institution remains the same." The letter also issued a set of demands and insisted on a restorative approach to realigning power at the leadership level predicated on transparency, accountability, and museum-wide staff participation.

With the 2019 Whitney Biennial exhibition just months away, W.A.G.E. oriented its involvement around mobilizing its primary constituency, artists, to act in solidarity with those whose labor is fundamental to facilitating their visibility — museum workers. On January 23, W.A.G.E. circulated an invitation to artists participating in the 2019 Whitney Biennial  to use WAGENCY to withhold content from the exhibition until the demands made by Whitney staff were met. W.A.G.E.’s strategy developed out of a series of long-form anonymous interviews with staff members connected to the internal letter and was an effort to shift DTP’s campaign away from an exclusive focus on the removal of Warren Kanders and back toward the holistic demands of the letter's signatories who were being increasingly backgrounded by the campaign and left vulnerable to workplace intimidation.

W.A.G.E.'s invitation was made after Biennial artists had signed a mandatory Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) prohibiting them from revealing their inclusion in the exhibition, and more than a month before the list of participating artists was announced by the Whitney Museum. At that point, no one, not even the artists themselves, knew who was in the exhibition. Even though WAGENCY would have enabled artists to withhold their work privately, and possibly without breaching the NDA, the inability of Biennial artists to communicate directly with one another posed a significant challenge to any form of collective organizing. No Biennial artists responded to W.A.G.E.'s invitation, but some are understood to have engaged as a group in formulating a collective response once the artist list was announced.

Warren Kanders remained on the board until resigning in July 2019 after months of sustained pressure by DTP, and shortly after four Biennial artists publicly announced their intention to withdraw from the exhibition in an open letter  published in Artforum.com. The artists' open letter responded to an Artforum.com editorial  published 48 hours before which urged participating artists to boycott the Biennial. The open letter was planned in advance, together with the authors of the editorial and Artforum. No artists withdrew their work and the 2019 Whitney Biennial closed on September 22.